PoleVaultPower.com

Hey...I'm vaulting at a DIII college right now and we kinda don't really have a coach.
We had a guy volunteering, but I havn't seen him for a few weeks (literally)...which isn't his fault.

So there's a couple of us trying to do stuff by ourselves. The other coaches don't ever come help us...except every once in a while when everybody else is gone and they feel like it.

I've talked to the coaches about it before, and we don't have the $ in our budget to hire somebody, and they say they're gonna get somebody to help sometimes next year....

But I'm REALLY frustrated right now, b/c I don't know what I'm doing....does anybody have any suggestions about what to do????...is this a common problem?

Here are a couple of things that I might help.
First, check with the local high schools. A coach might like having a couple of college student jump with his high schoolers. I know if you are mature and helpful, I would love to have you come out. I'm Calif. Too
Bad.
Second, try to get a friend to video tape your practices. You can coach yourself, if you can see what you are doing.
Lastly, ask your coach to invest in some Jan Johnson or Earl Bell tapes. It's a cheap coaching solution for this season.

Subject "no coach" -buy "From Beginner to Bubka" . It might help.

start studying the polevault yourself, read posts on here and start trying to figure it out for yourself, any old coach my screw you up more than if you truely find the correct way to do things... i dont have a coach but i did have a video camera and knowledge.

KYLE ELLIS wrote: i dont have a coach but i did have a video camera and knowledge.

I agree with Kyle - those two can take you a really long way. So get yourself a camera if you dont have one, and then start reading... alot. On several occassions I've found local coaches I've talked to for advice who knew less than I do - and didnt even understand the mechanics behind what they were coaching. So you might be better off with what was suggested above rather than a mediocre coach who may not know much for athletes at your level.

I had the same thing, what helped was studying the event as previously posted and tape it and watch and talk on here. I didn't really vault until college, and had to do a lot on my own. It takes time, but just work at it and stay positive. Explore the websites and print everything you can in the labs (free).

Thanks, guys...hopefully some of this stuff will work

Video Camera's can be a blessing, but to know how to critique what you've seen is another blessing, I knew of some ISU vaulters who taped themselves regularly and watched themselves all the time, but it looked as they never seemed to know how to fix themselves, or even how to get to the next level just getting stuck, and their coach seemed to be "OK" but not really exceptional, but yeah, Wisdom and a Video Camera together make good in absence of a coach..

my video camera w/ all my film was stolen last weekend!

oh no! that's awful!!

I dont think I could survive without my camera....

Sorry to hear that man.

Same here! I am pretty much a coachless vaulter because all we have is a parent that volunteers to "watch over us" and I would be done vaulting basically without my camera to learn from. I can't forget about everyone on here that I run to everytime I see something wrong though. Thanks a lot everyone!